Brooklyn Mother Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison
For Shaking and Severely Beating her 2-Year-old Son

Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a 30-year-old woman from Sunset Park, Brooklyn was sentenced to 20 years in prison for brutally assaulting her 2-year-old son by violently shaking, striking, biting and pinching him, causing permanent brain damage and other serious injuries.

Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “This horrific violence against a helpless baby at the hands of his mother is disturbing and completely unacceptable. Instead of protecting her child, this defendant nearly killed him and left him paralyzed. She deserves to be in prison for what she did.”

The Acting District Attorney identified the defendant as Yayun Weng, 30, of Sunset Park Brooklyn. She was sentenced today by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Dineen Riviezzo to 20 years in prison and five years’ post-release supervision following her conviction on October 11, 2016 of first-degree assault, second-degree assault and related counts after a non-jury trial.

The Acting District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, on February 25, 2014, the defendant assaulted her son, who had turned 2 exactly two weeks earlier. She shook him in a whiplash manner, struck his feet with a bamboo rod, bit his right calf, hit the bottom of his feet with her hand and pinched him all over his body.

Two days later, the defendant brought the victim, unresponsive, to Maimonides Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition with internal head injuries, bruises over his entire body, multiple bite marks, and swelling and bumps to the head, the evidence showed. The child remains paralyzed from the neck down, has permanent brain damage and his condition has progressively worsened.

The defendant was arrested and subsequently made statements, admitting to causing the injuries, according to the evidence.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Deanna Paul of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau, and Assistant District Attorney Frank DeGaetano, Deputy Bureau Chief, under the supervision of Miss Gregory, Chief.